


Reflections

by Radium_225



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Backstory, F/M, Falling In Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:39:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27670130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Radium_225/pseuds/Radium_225
Summary: Eurydice reflects on her relationship with Orpheus and how they fell in love.(This was intended to fit within Hades canon but it relies so much on my own ideas that it’s practically greek myth fanfiction at this point.)
Relationships: Eurydice wife of Orpheus/Orpheus (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Eurydice/Orpheus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry, I know he’s obnoxiously straight and everyone hates him but I am SO starved for Orpheus-related content.   
> If you’re wondering about his appearance, I’m basing it on this: https://64.media.tumblr.com/fab9980ff79eaec30060dfd3b6adfff9/tumblr_pytionoYg71rhkv7ho2_1280.jpg  
> But, like. Scrawnier, and more Orpheus-y.  
> If we're assuming Orpheus was responsible for Orphism, which the game appears to, then he would’ve been a vegetarian. Let’s just assume he had a phase.

He hadn’t been a bad man. He was actually quite sweet, though there wasn’t a sensible bone in his body. His most irritating flaw was vanity. It wasn’t deliberate; he never tried to gloat or establish himself within a pecking order. He simply accepted his own greatness in the same matter-of-fact way that he accepted the stars in the sky.

Eurydice saw this, even as a naive 20-year-old, but she fell in love with him regardless.

In life, she lived among the other nymphs and the satyrs in the sprawling oak forest. She was wild. City-boys had a kind of novelty, all softened on silks, fine wines and exotic pleasures. And while Orpheus had never fit in among their ilk, and hardly lived up to the picture in her head of what they should look like, he aroused her curiosity. He was an oddity among oddities.

If you were feeling generous towards him, he was a striking boy. If you were not, he was a mess. One of those people you instantly feel is either beautiful or grotesque. He was tall. Gawky. Moved awkwardly, like he wasn’t quite sure what to do with the entire length of himself. His neck was swan-like. His bony shoulders were usually hunched out of embarrassment. Every feature of his face was drawn in bold, confident strokes. Wide, solemn eyes, a beak of a nose, and enticingly full lips, usually smeared with pigment. Not the usual fashion for men; there were whispers behind his back, but he never listened to anyone.

And more than that, he loved attention. Despite his shy demeanor, he dressed provocatively, and basked in the coos of how  _ strange _ and  _ artistic _ and  _ handsome _ he was. Truly an envoy of Apollo and Dionysus! He’d drape his himation so it proudly displayed his skinny, sunburnt little torso. The fabric tended to ride down on his hips and shoulders in a way that was alluring, but not quite seductive. Eurydice could never be sure whether it was intentional. 

His thick hair was kept coiffed by a relative or lover, as he had no patience for it. It fell to the small of his back in orderly ringlets, though it never stayed neat for long. He had a way of getting it all tangled up in twigs and leaves during his jaunts in the forest. He didn’t bother to pick them out. He thought they made him look rugged.

The feature that actually won her over was his smile. It was a little lopsided and a little silly-looking, but completely unpretentious. Something unique among his ilk that she found absolutely gorgeous.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter's meatier than the first! I had a lot of trouble with this fic's style, as I wanted it to summarize the past rather than portray events as they happened, and I ran into a lot of weird tense issues, but I hope you can enjoy my take on these characters! I wanted to upload it despite its flaws because I feel that it informs how I write Orpheus and Eurydice in the present.

It was a crisp autumn afternoon. Nearly dusk. There had been a celebration, and she’d gotten too preoccupied catching up with distant cousins to properly keep track of time. When she finally made the trek back to the clearing that was her home, there was a human in front of her tree. 

He appeared to be after the hive on its branches. Though the bees could be terribly noisy, they knew well enough what Eurydice was, and they left her alone. They’d been with her all year. She was hoping for flowers in the springtime. She’d grown fond of them.

She intended to tell the honey-thief off, but as he began to sing, she forgot herself. She stood there dumbfounded. Subdued with nothing but his voice, the bees floated up in an amorphous cloud, like fabric thrown into air, and scattered into the treetops above. The man scooped out only a handful of honeycomb, though he could have easily taken the entire hive as his spoils. 

He grew quiet, and the bees began to filter back into their dwelling. Eurydice too was taken from her trance, so impressed that she forgot her earlier animosity. She called out to him and he turned, two honey-drenched fingers stuffed into his mouth, and smiled.

She led him back to her cave. He was skinny, messy-haired, and half-naked. She thought he was lost and starving.

Orpheus, on the other hand, thought himself a man of the wilderness. He explained proudly that he did this quite frequently. He found it exhilarating to brave the forest with nothing but the lyre on his back. He’d look for a nice, grassy, glade, and then he’d think and practice and compose his music. Sometimes, he would sleep there.

Eurydice, slightly concerned, offered him a bed for the night on her bear-skin rug. 

He was transfixed by it, and had insisted on knowing its killer. Eurydice pointed to herself, smugly, and Orpheus flushed pink to the tips of his ears. He liked warriors. He found them very inspiring. He rambled, out of nervousness, or perhaps in an attempt to impress her, and told her about the voyage of the argonauts, and how he’d comforted them with his music. (Comforted them with something else too, she imagined.)

She cooked for him while he talked. It was a simple meal of roasted fish, but nonetheless, he devoured it with the vigor of a starving animal. It worried her. Clearly, the city was not taking care of him. Humans never seemed to live very long once it abandoned them. 

It would be a shame, because he had a gift. And even discounting that, he was very cute. She told him he could share in her food and shelter whenever he required it.

It was a week before he returned. By then, he’d written a song about her, and she was hopelessly, stupidly in love with him. They made love on that same bear-skin, and as they lay in their afterglow, all smiling and giddy and decorated with sweat, he’d told her that her voice was wonderful. That she’d make an incredible singer. It was awfully cheeky of him, going by moans alone. She told him that she already  _ was _ one, for his information, and that was just perfect, because he decided he’d write a song for her voice. She agreed, but only if he let her do the same. He could teach her. She wanted to see what he was doing in the middle of the forest that was so embarrassing that he had to come all the way out here to be alone.

So they became partners in music, which, for Orpheus, was only a few steps removed from actual marriage.

Looking back on it all, he was a fool. He could’ve died ten times over mucking around in the forest like he did. No food. No water. No actual knowledge of anything. He got away with it because of his music, in the same way that he got away with  _ most _ things because of his music. Perhaps it had been his people’s fault for raising him as if it were the only part of him that mattered.

He’d wandered into hell with that same childlike faith in his own invulnerability. Why wouldn’t he, of all people, be capable of cheating death? But even though he was generally impulsive and confident, he would, occasionally, be subjected to profound fits of doubt. As if his brain would occasionally lose balance by veering off too far to one side, and then turn sharply to correct itself. He’d been raised on so much praise and affection that he grew nervous without it - grew downright paranoid. 

It was hardly the first time that he’d doubted her affections. Any minor thing could trigger it: saying his name in the wrong tone of voice, acting irritated when he woke her up in the middle of the night to hear the new song. She never did get the chance to ask him what it was that final time that set him off, but she’d bet money on it being something stupid.

Perhaps that was why the afterlife had been so much harder on him than on her. She’d already come to terms with his flaws, but for the first time in his entire existence, he was forced to confront them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading… Comments and critique are greatly appreciated!   
> If you have Orpheus/Eurydice (or Orpheus/anyone, honestly) opinions that you want to share, my discord is Pcomplex#3633.   
> (ALSO is there a discord for talking about Hades pairings and fanfiction? I don’t wanna do it in the official Supergiant one…)

**Author's Note:**

> The second half of this is written and should be proofread and uploaded by tomorrow.  
> Thank you for reading!


End file.
